TAPHONOMY, CRONOSTRATIGRAPHY AND PALEOCEANOGRAPHIC IMPLICATIONS AT TURBIDITE OF EARLY PALEOGENE (VERTIENTES FORMATION), CUBA

Abstract

This study focuses on the taphonomy, paleontology, and invertebrate diversity of the Upper Paleocene to Lower Eocene, turbidite deposits of Vertientes Formation, northwest of Ciego de Ávila, Central Cuba. The section exposed is stratified with detritic rocks, heterogeneous litoclasts and bioclasts. The fossil assemblage includes bivalve mollusks, gastropods, equinoderms, corals, crustaceans, icnofossils, orbitoidal foraminifera, ostracods and radiolarians. Age of the deposit was determined by the accumulated planktonic foraminifera assemblage. The taphonomic charac- terization of the conserved entities suggests processes such as mineralization, recrystallization, sedimentary infilling, disarticulation, fragmentation, encrustation and others, indicating that these conserved entities are alocthonous and have suffered intense processes of transport, taphonomic reelaboration and resedimentation. The depositional sequence was accumulated in association with a slope, in a bathyal environment, influenced by strong precipitations, typical of tropical to subtropical latitudes.